AP source: Elena Kagan picked for Supreme Court

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2010 file photo, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar at the Newseum in Washington. If President Barack Obama nominates Kagan to the Supreme Court, her age could be the decisive factor. Kagan is the youngest by nearly seven years of the four people Obama is known to have interviewed, and she would be the youngest nominee by a Democratic president since 1962, when President John F. Kennedy chose Byron White at age 44. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
— AP

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2010 file photo, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar at the Newseum in Washington. If President Barack Obama nominates Kagan to the Supreme Court, her age could be the decisive factor. Kagan is the youngest by nearly seven years of the four people Obama is known to have interviewed, and she would be the youngest nominee by a Democratic president since 1962, when President John F. Kennedy chose Byron White at age 44. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this May 3, 2010 file photo, retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens speaks during the annual meeting of the 7th Circuit Bar Association & Judicial Conference of the 7th Circuit, in Chicago. Liberals fear that after helping elect President Barack Obama he'll abandon them when he nominates a Supreme Court justice, choosing a consensus-building moderate rather than a liberal in the mold of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. (AP Photo/David Banks, File)— AP

FILE - In this May 3, 2010 file photo, retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens speaks during the annual meeting of the 7th Circuit Bar Association & Judicial Conference of the 7th Circuit, in Chicago. Liberals fear that after helping elect President Barack Obama he'll abandon them when he nominates a Supreme Court justice, choosing a consensus-building moderate rather than a liberal in the mold of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. (AP Photo/David Banks, File)
/ AP

WASHINGTON 
Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be nominated Monday to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, pushing the former law school dean toward the pinnacle of her profession and positioning the United States to have three women justices for the first time in its history.

Obama will announce his choice at 10 a.m. in the East Room of the White House alongside Vice President Joe Biden. Kagan will also speak. The room will be filled with Kagan's Justice Department colleagues and other guests invited to soak in one of a presidency's biggest moments.

The White House revealed Kagan's name Monday morning after it had been reported Sunday night.

Obama has started making calls to Senate leaders to inform them of his choice, while his White House team is launching a broad campaign-style outreach to Capitol Hill and the media. That effort is designed to shape the national image of Kagan, an unknown figure to much of America.

The selection of Kagan came after nearly a monthlong process of consideration. Obama always had Kagan on his short list but still considered a broader group of candidates, interviewing four.

The president informed Kagan that she would a Supreme Court nominee on Sunday night. He then called the three federal judges he did not choose for the position, Diane Wood, Merrick Garland and Sidney Thomas.

Never a judge, Kagan is known as sharp and politically savvy and has enjoyed a blazing legal career. She was the first female dean of Harvard Law School, first woman to serve as the top Supreme Court lawyer for any administration, and now first in Obama's mind to succeed legendary liberal Justice John Paul Stevens.

On Monday morning, shortly before 8 a.m., Kagan emerged from her Washington, D.C., apartment, got into the back seat of a vehicle and was driven to the White House. She did not acknowledge photographers and reporters who had gathered to await her appearance.

At 50 years old, Kagan would be the youngest justice on the court, which would give her the opportunity to extend Obama's legacy for a generation.

Kagan must first win Senate confirmation. A source close to the selection process said a central element in Obama's choice was Kagan's reputation for bringing together people of competing views and earning their respect.

Republicans have shown no signs in advance that they would try to prevent a vote on Kagan, but they are certain to grill her in confirmation hearings over her experience, her thin record of legal writings and her objections to the military's policy about gays.

When she was confirmed as solicitor general in 2009, seven Republicans backed her: Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Susan Collins of Maine, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

Kagan came to the fore as a candidate who had worked closely with all three branches of government, a legal mind with both a sense of modesty and sense of humor. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss factors that led to Kagan's impending nomination.